Disposable, reusable and durable products such as diapers, adult incontinence articles, feminine hygiene tampons, sanitary napkins, underpants, shirts, shorts, swimsuits, gowns, pants, coats, gloves, scarves, surgical drapes, bibs, blankets, sheets, pillow cases, etc. may be manufactured on high speed converting lines. A converting line may utilize a web-based carrier to which many source materials, whether in a continuous web or discrete pieces, are processed and/or attached to the web to create a finished product.
Although a converting line may allow for high speed production, some converting lines may be inflexible in that line changes are time consuming and expensive. For example, some converting lines may require extensive disassembly and reassembly when conducting maintenance and/or replacing certain components. In another example, converting lines may require substantial disassembly and rework in order to accommodate product upgrades. In one scenario, a product upgrade may, for example, require the following steps: constructing manual or handmade products incorporating the upgrade in order to test the concept and determine consumer acceptance of such an upgrade; constructing a machine production unit that may manufacture the product upgrade and/or the entire product incorporating the upgrade in order to determine product and process feasibility; constructing a high speed test stand that may manufacture the product upgrade in isolation at high speeds in order to test the feasibility of high speed manufacturing; constructing a prototype line that is able to make complete prototype products at high speeds; reconstructing a high speed production line to implement the process changes necessary for the product upgrade; and testing and debugging the production line. In yet another example, converting lines are inflexible to make more than one type of product. In one scenario, in order to make a different product on an existing line, the follow steps are required: portions of the line must be disassembled; reassembled of the line in the new configuration; testing to qualify the line in the new configuration. The aforementioned efforts may be expensive and time consuming, especially when the reconstruction, testing and debugging steps lead to down time of a high speed production line. Further, when a product upgrade is rolled out on multiple production lines, the time and money required to implement even a small change in each individual line may increase dramatically. Often, the time and money required will be prohibitive, and highly desirable product upgrades may be delayed or even eliminated.
In an attempt to facilitate faster installation, servicing, and adjustment of the working devices, some converting lines may include modular sections joined together. However, such converting lines do not account for difficulties in shipping and require modules to plug into mezzanine type accessory ducts permanently installed. Thus, a converting line configuration that allows for relatively fast and easy product development, relatively low cost and efficient shipping, and reconfiguration is desired, which also minimizes down time due to testing and debugging a production converting line after construction or reconstruction.